Avatar: The Last Benders
by TheAlphonse
Summary: The world has changed. Benders have not been for centuries & the legend of the Avatar has been translated into a divine representation of God. The modern world has grown ignorant to their true history. Someone is searching though & everything will change!
1. My New Unionist Life

**|| Water || Earth || Fire || Air ||**

Long ago the four nations lived together in harmony. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could save us. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed before the new Avatar was discovered. And although he was young, Avatar Aang delivered the world from assured destruction at the hands of the Fire Lord. With a new sense of harmony instilled, the cultural and human boundaries began to uplift and the people of the three remaining nations reentered into a unified world. But as the years began to pass, the airbending race eventually died out and unexplainably the number of children born with the ability to bend their respective elements began to decrease. Centuries passed and subtly the Fire Nation began to reclaim the world, its economic and colonialist dominance and impact over the world no easy thing to get rid of in just one avatars lifetime. And with the extinction of benders the ways of old have become just stories, the avatar—a representation of divinity. In the modern world, the old world of the Avatar is no more. But something is brewing within this modern metropolis. A group of believers, aptly named Nation, who trace their lineage back to the Fire Nation, have been looking for those who still possess even a trace of the genetic marker that enables bending. Once enough benders have been amassed, the group will begin the next phase of their dark plan…

**Book One: Chapter 1: My New Unionist Life**

Dawn crept through the dusty, white blinds hanging loosely in the windows. Sunlight inched its way into the shady confines of the 17ft.4in. X 11ft. 9in bed room, slowly, yet surely stripping it of the darkness it wore. The harsh light gave life to the walls, wearing a lush, cream paint that smelled of nectar, yet failed to hide the wall's smell of cigars and cheap incenses. Previous tenants, whadda yah gunna do? Below, on the wooden flooring, the once polished and gleaming floorboard was littered with arbitrary pieces of clothing, dirty dishes and just about anything else scattered across its hardwood surface in a manner of disarray.

A thick, hot muss consumed the air, overpowering the small scented cinnamon candle atop the windowsill, leaving its tart scent cowering in a limited section of the room. Airborne dust could be seen passing by the columns of light bursting through from the window, twisted around the room by the soft turning of the ceiling fan, swooshing as it spun on full blast. The interior was fitting of its modern and sleek design, constructed for the urban 'Joe', a meld of culture, perfectly symbolic of Caldera growing modernization.

The bed squeaked alive.

Limbs extended from under the white satin sheets, stiff and restless. Unwilling to be woken by the bright intruding light, bodies, intertwined in one another, clung to the covers, eyes shut tight as possible. But just as it seemed that the expanding forces of sunlight had been beaten by laziness and sheer resilience, the alarm rose to life behind the bed stand, its recent home during the last night's three hours of sleep after Call of Duty: Black Ops via Playstation Network ran a little past lights out.

_"Osian! Get up or you'll be late for early morning mass, honey! You know your new school requires attendance at least once a week! Now move!_

The musical alarm coupled with my mom's soft ranting claimed my ears, tearing me from my slumber. The sudden soulful ballad caused my body to jump as I immediately tore my arms from under the bedspread, banging against the nightstand, searching for the snooze button that now lay at rest on the solid premium Greenwood Bamboo floor.

Letting out a long, exaggerated breath, my deep, grey eyes shot open. It was like the jazzy tones played to off beat emotional yelling of my mom ignited my thought process.

"_UGH! I'm up, I'm up!"_

I wasn't up, but autopilot was a necessary skill set to develop in this new place. The ability to wash up, dress and eat while losing only about 17% of the awesome feeling of sleeping in was almost resume applicable. As I moved through his daily routines without much conscious interaction, I thought about my friends and family back in northern Ba Sing Se. I missed home. This wasn't home. This was a nightmare so far. But with the economy the way it was, good jobs were hard to come by and so, when mom got offered a position working in the Secretariat of Caldera, we honestly had no choice but to accept and relocate to the capital of the United Nations of Fire.

I'd been forced to leave everything I'd ever known: my social life, my friends, my dad, my grandparents, anything that reminded me of a time when things were a bit easier; a time before the accident. It'd only week since the move, but things showed no signs of getting better. Their apartment was too small, even for just the two of them. The city was crowded. The people were rude and always moving, always busy. Not to mention my new school, The Saint Iroh State Academy, was a total prison. It was apparently the best school in the whole city, with a tuition that more than clarified that. The only reason mom was able to afford it was that state official dependents were offered a discounted rate. And although it was still rather pricy, she felt my old high school was such a rundown piece of crap that I could finally get the education I deserved. Either way, I didn't like it. They had to wear uniforms and it was plainly obvious that I didn't fit in at all there. The kids were all rich little snobs with drivers and butlers and a knowledge base of some six or seven different nation based languages. It was all a bunch of bologna if I had anything to say about it. When would I ever need to speak Katarese in one of the Ocean Tribes or the King's English in the more snooty Earth Kingdoms like Omashu or Bei Jing. As far as I was concerned I would get through school without too many hiccups, find some moderately paying job somewhere near home like the one of the islands and surf and bake til I kicked the bucket. Just because my mom was now working in the Secretariat didn't mean I had to assimilate to this lame way of living.

I took another bite of cereal than stumbled out the door as my mom pushed me off to mass while she headed to work.

_"You can walk to the cathedral right, Sai? Thanks, love you! Dinners at 11, don't be late!"_

_"Mom, 11 is late all on it's own. Why would I prolong the suffering anymore than I have to?"_

_"Oh honey I'm sorry but you know I need these extra shifts until we get better settled. Love you bunches, though. See ya."_

I sighed as he continued on my way. Our apartment really wasn't that far from the school, but I always took my time getting there so it might as well have been. We lived near the historic district so I had to pass through downtown to get there, which meant I had to walk through rushing crowds of people usually. It wasn't ever too bad in the mornings but still there were a lot of people who lived in the city. As I passed a few opening shops and markets, their large glass windows gleaming my reflection back at me, I took a moment to appreciate my lack of attentiveness to my wrinkled uniform. It'd have done the boys back home proud. I stared back at myself for a moment. I wasn't very tall…but not short either…maybe 5'9" or so. And my medium length, uncombed, yet naturally calm black hair and slight baggy eyes testified to the fact that I hadn't been awake very long. But my bangs were threatening to cover any sign of the bagginess anyways so I didn't care. A girl once told me that I was 'rather handsome, but in a more subtle, sleeker way than most others." I never knew whether it was a compliment or not. Oh well. My burgundy and grey uniform kinda hung on me. I'd asked for a slightly bigger size than I wore only because I hated feeling uptight and cramped. My mom nearly freaked that I was bringing this habit along with me to a new school but hey she was winning just by getting me to even wear a uniform so she let it go.

A biker with a similar uniform bumped past me and jogged me from my thoughts. I sighed and continued on, finally reaching the cathedral and lazily pushing into the double doors with other lively kids rushing to take their place before the sage began his morning prayer. As I took my place among my grade and kneeled into the available row, I sat there and scanned the crowds. This was my second time coming to one of these things and it still kinda amazed me how in tune everyone was while here. Most kids had their eyes closed and heads bowed, with their hands politely clasped in their laps. Some even chanted.

The customary loud gong cleared my thoughts as looked back up to the front at an old man, Sage Sepu, in ceremonial robes and a few boys my own age assisting and accompanying the sage.

The man chanted in some ancient dialect for a few moments before beginning anything that I could understand.

_"Dear Avatar, most benevolent, most beneficial_

_We come before thee today gracious and thankful for the many blessings that you have bestowed upon our unworthy lives."_

The students chanted the lines afterwards. I never did… Just kept my head down as to not arouse attention from any of the head boys or girls overseeing the mass. Almost no one in my immediate family or friends was very religious back home. They never went to church on Sundays or really even prayed at all. We used to, but after the accident my mom stopped making me go. I barely even remember what I was even supposed to do while in church so I kind of just sat there when we had to do this.

_"…Lead us on the right path, oh Father Avatar, and help us to do as you have instructed."_

I knew some things about the state religion, of course. But nothing too detailed. I remembered what my father used to teach me and what I'd listen to him say or see him doing. He told me that Avatar was a divine being, or the divine being, I corrected, who maintained peace and harmony amongst the world and kept it in balance. That Avatar was the bridge between the spiritual realm and the physical realm and that he had the power to bless you or smite you if you were bad or threatened the natural balance. Unionism was never my mom's thing but my dad sort of gave them all faith. Now I seemed just as lost as ever. I wondered whether there was a patron spirit of those were lost. There seemed to be one for everything else at least. I could only really remember a few books of the bible. One or two that I could pull off the top of my head were about the ancient benders and some others about the trials of Avatar. It was all mostly gibberish to me now and so being at a unionist academy seemed a conundrum that I wouldn't soon be solving.

_"Hail Avatar, keeper of peace, prey for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen."_

They chanted the last line a few times over and the gong rung again, signaling the end of mass and the start of the school day.

My class schedule had finally stopped shifting and I was assigned a final schedule for the duration of the semester. Four lecture classes and PE course. Most were arithmetic courses but I did have one elective: Religious and Philosophical Studies: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Apparently it was a course on history and social studies, naturally with a unionist twist to it. As I walked in the instructor signaled me to remain standing in front of the class before finding a seat. It was my first time in the class and already I was wishing I could have stayed in Pre-Cal…but apparently the class was overbooked and so it was replaced with one of the lighter courses. The instructor was an old man, Professor Ko, who looked like he should have retired decades ago. Probably thee Saint Iroh himself. Thank Avatar, or so I'd developed a small habit of saying, that this wasn't one of the larger classes or else I'd have been standing in front of 100 prying eyed students instead of the 20 I now stood before.

_"Students. Good morning! We have a new student joining us. Please tell us your name and where you are from.."_

I gulped. _"My name is Osian…uh…Walker. I'm from northern Ba Sing Se."_

_"Ahh. What a delight! A Singsean in these parts. Welcome, Mr. UhWalker. So which Nation are your descendants from?_"

I believe I honestly looked as stumped as I felt. How the hell was I supposed to know? I was born and raised in Ba Sing Se… never even thought about where my grandparents were from… and somehow I figured this man wanted to know even farther along than just that.

_"Uhm. I… don't know. I guess probably…"_

_"Stop right there…. We do try not to simply 'guess' in this class, Mr. UhWalker. But either way… if I had to guess from looking at you, I'd say your family isn't originally from Ba Sing Se or anything surrounding regions…"_

Half the class began snickering at the man's remarks. He was definitely as old as I had figured if he'd forgotten his no guessing rule so quickly… I fought my own inkling not to smile only because the instructor was prying straight into my expression.

_"You actually look as if your family could have migrated from the UNF by your features…you've got that Fire Nationer look in your eye… Either way, please take a seat and try not to disrupt the class with your less-than-presentable look you have going for you today."_

I tried to ignore the comment about my clothing and scanned the room for a vacant seat until a waving hand shot up near the back and a guy flagged me over to the seat next to his. I took the way out and scurried over to the empty desk.

_"Thanks.."_

_"No problem, dude… I'm Corintin. Call me Corey." He extended his armed and dabbed me up._

_"Sai."_

_"Now, class… who can tell me how many kingdoms there were at the beginning of the Romance Era,"_ inquired Ko.

A few hands shot up, not many, but the ones who did waved very eagerly. He called on one, a girl. _"3!"_

_"Incorrect."_ He called on another. This time a guy's _"3"_.

_"Still incorrect, Xavier." A few people snickered._

_"There were a rumored four nations that existed just before the Great Sozin War but the few remaining records from that era only prove the establishment of three…"_

He raised his bushy eyebrow and looked over to a girl sitting diagonal to Sai and Rin… When I turned to see her for myself, she was actually really pretty. Her hair, fine and in black sheets, arranged expertly and attractively about her head, was well cared for. Sharp, amber eyes, a forgettable nose and a strong jaw made up for an unmistakably beautiful and intelligent face. Her voice, light and soothing, gave me shivers initially.

_"Only rumored? Aye, Miss Amiamara?"_

_"Like I said… there are no official records."_

_"Hm… or so the Secretariat would lead us to believe… what if there was proof buried in the catacombs of other nations?"_

_"But the Secretariat has the largest and most expansive library in the world. They have documents predating all other nations and colonies, if there was another nation the UNF would undoubtedly have provided proof as such,"_ she rebutted.

_"Um… my dad…"_ Fuck. I'd said that out loud, didn't I? The entire class shifted their eyes to me.

_"Yes… Mr. UhWalker… You have something you'd like to add?"_ The instructor was practically giddy with excitement that such a new student was already getting involved with discussion. A sight for sore eyes amongst the drowsy eyed, drooling crowd. _"Go on.."_

I wanted to break a run for it, but the building was probably tightly controlled with head students and security. I swallowed.

_"Well… my dad… used to tell me that there was once a proud people who lived as nomadians. That they were a roaming society of people with no official government or monarch or anything. That they were free…"_

"_Ah. Your father must be a scholar! It is true! There was a fourth nation… the Airian Nomads! A gypsy society of free thinkers, scholars, spiritualists, monks and enlightened individuals. They were rumored to have built the great Southern and Northern Airian Temples. The ruins of the temples till this day have never been able to be attributed to any currently existing nation. Two of the few wonders of the world, the technology used to lift the temples have yet to be replicated since! Marvels they are! The temples are even said to have been the birthplace of the human incarnate of Avatar if you can believe it!"_

The professor seemed to speak with such enthusiasm that even managed to lift some of the heads in the back of the classroom.

_"Perhaps it was Avatar himself that granted them the ability to do so..!"_

_"Herself!" "Himself" "Himself" "Herself!"_ The students went back and forth with each other for a few seconds longer before the instructor hushed them all back down, with a few lasting giggles here and there.

I turned in my chair to look back at the girl who'd spoken, only to find glaring, almost reddish eyes starring straight back at me. I immediately shifted back around in my chair, my face immediately turning a lighter shade of pink. I shrunk in my chair, Corey chuckling to himself having witnessed it all.

_"I have a question, though… What happened to the Airians?"_ asked Corey.

_"Well… it depends really. There are a few stories that you could choose to believe. Some believe that they ascended to a high plane, others believe they simply disbanded and merged with other nations. And yet still others suggest that they were…exterminated. Destroyed in Sozin's War."_

"_I don't think there ever were Airians. I think it's a myth attached to this sillier idea of people shooting fireballs or flying through the air."_ This from Amiamara.

The bell rung.

_"Damn it all to Fire!"_ The kids all laughed at the instructors sudden mood change. _"I say I did forget about the SATs today… Darn things cutting my lesson plan in half! The blasted things hardly test anything at all… just another way the state is funding itself… Blasted politics I tell ya! Well, up and out with you all… report to the gymnasium… But remember tomorrow I'll be administering a quiz on the legend of the benders as soon as you come in so study your assigned texts and prepare yourselves…"_

_"The Legend of the Benders?"_ Exclaimed Sai..

_"Don't tell me they've never heard of the Legend of the Benders in the Earth Kingdoms…" screamed Sai!_

_"Nah.. It's not that. It's just. I haven't heard anyone talk about that old story since my dad."_

_"You're dad sure does like his light unionist readings before breakfast, huh?"_ He laughed at what apparently was a joke.

_"Actually… my dad died."_

_"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that. But uhm. How about I let you use my textbook tonight so you can study... or I could just come over and we could help go over it together."_

_"Cool beans."_

_"So... What are these SATs?"_

_TheAlphonse: Hi! So this is my first story on this site! I'm really excited about it! Please Let you know what you guys thinK!_


	2. SAT  Standard Avatar Testing

**Book One: Chapter 2: SATs – Standardized Avatar Testing**

"Really? You've never heard of the SAT? The Standardized Avatar Test… My older brother told me about it… you take it when you enter high school… Apparently it's like… a super intense, intrusive health examination. They're like checking everything from whether you have head lice to your mental state… probably why my brother failed. He's dumber than a box ah rocks! Apparently only a handful of people have ever passed it every year in the whole nation to become eligible candidates for some tester thing with the government. If you pass, you're apparently some kind of perfect human. Yep… I personally think it's a shitload of crap! The Secretariats just trying to make everyone into mindless zombies and tag everyone's DNA and hair samples! Fight the man!"

He stood there for a few moments with his fist balled up, stretched out into the air with his head hung low...until a head boy came and smacked the top of his head with a rolled up piece of paper and told him to move along to the gymnasium. As we walked towards the gym, signs along the walk directed everyone to the SATs as if the school was just that big that people might get lost.

"Psst… I'm ditching this whoohah… They aint gonna probe me, man. You down…?"

I looked around and then back towards the entrance of the gym where head students were guiding the others in through a single file format… "Uh… sure I guess." With that, Corey yanked my armed and pulled me down another hall and through an unmarked door…

"I know a short cut so that we can bypass the back gate security. Its actually above the gymnasium… so be quiet!"

We sleeked up the staircase and on to the track of the gym. It was on the second floor and surrounded the main floor just below. We ducked our heads low and assumed a crawling position, scurrying along the floor to get the opposite side of the track. Corey seemed a bit better at this kind of thing than I was. He was probably much more athletic than I was but hell who wasn't. He was taller, too. Not by much, but a noticeable difference. He had light brown skin, also; almost yellow. He was definitely biracial as I've never seen a guy with his complexion and blue-grey eyes. He was about ten feet in front of me when he crashed into a tall, rather large male.

"Well where the hell are we going today?" Corey just kind of chuckled, looked back to me and suddenly he launched his feet into the air, impacting the man's swollen chest. It was just enough to knock the man off balance but not fully knock him down.

"Run, Sai!" I scurried over to him and took off running, with him hot on my trail. I was still in shock at what he'd just done, or more importantly how he'd done it. It was like kung fu or something. Good thing I was a great autopiloter or I have ended up running square into a wall. Suddenly, my body impacted stone and I knew I'd spoken too soon. I was knocked to the floor, my head spinning form the suddenly jolt. I looked up and saw another freakishly large head boy standing over me.

They must breed these guys or something! I thought. I was immediately scooped up the man. An almost doppelganger of the man appeared suddenly behind Corey and did the same. They were immediately escorted down to the gymnasium floor where they were placed at the back of formation they'd put all the students into… Corey cowered behind the curious, almost excited Sai.

"What are you doing man… its just a physical, right?"

"Yeah, but… I don't know. I just have a bad feeling about it. Besides, who wants to find out that they fail at being a human…"

"Dude, you just went kung fu panda on that guy's ass… if I had to guess which one of us is going to epic fail this human test my bets would go on myself." Corey continued to cower and shake nervously in his place in the line….

"Good afternoon, students." "Good afternoon, head master!"

"Welcome to this year's SATs. I have very high hopes for this year's batch of fresh, young minds." The head master's gaze fell to the front of the formation. I tried to look around the guy in front of me to get a better look at who he was looking at. I managed to catch a glimpse of a girl standing at the front end of the formation to the right of ours….

"Is that the pretty girl from class…" I whispered to himself.

"It's Amiamara," answered Corey. "She's Headmaster Mizen's daughter and, well, a shoe-in to pass this year's test. Everyone knows it! Nepotism at it's best if you asked me. There's no way she won't pass it. With the headmaster's influence, hell he could get my pet tortoise, Lion Turtle, to pass the thing."

"Really?"

"Well, I mean Lion Turtle is pretty advanced for a tortoise and…"

"No! I mean, you think that'll really happen? She seemed pretty…capable of passing any kind of test in class today."

"Oh, well, I mean she is a genius. And she's already the valedictorian of your class. And she's been ranked this year along with the upperclassmen in martial arts this year."

"So why was it that you thought she wouldn't pass the test on her own?"

"Eh. It's just the conspiracy theorist in me." I sighed in exhaustion at Corey's rather imaginative outlook on life.

"And well…there is the thing about her older brother, Azazel. He was truly a legend at this school. He was declared a prodigy before he was even admitted. He's ultra cool and super smart! He was the first person to ever pass the SATs. They were planning to scrap the testing before he came along. Azazel is the coolest, most mysterious, most awesome guy ever to walk these halls!" Corey was doing that thing where he lost control of his vocal range. A few irritated students were whispering to us to shut up before the headmaster noticed the commotion.

"You seem really…um…knowledgeable about him." He nodded in total agreement!

"Mhm! Azazel is one of my idols. He's like a rock star of martial arts and cooletry." It was kinda clear that he'd just made up the word, but I decided to divert my attention back to the headmaster's speech.

"You will all be tested today. Most of you wont make it through the preliminaries, not even a handful will probably get to the final phase of testing. But please, don't be discouraged, young ones. Don't consider yourselves imperfect, but rather necessarily flawed." He managed to say this with the most convincingly charming smile you could ever hope to manage. The students all bowed and replied in unison. "Yes, headmaster."

A woman then replaced him at the microphone on the stage and began shouting into the mic at what seemed a highly unnecessary octave but no one seemed to mind.

"Now! There are three phases! Health Examination! Mental Evaluation! And Physical Aptitude!"

**EXAMINATION ROOM #6 Osian Walker**

Only a few minutes later, I found myself staring a doctor's eye scope thingy head-on, its almost blinding light threatening to have me seeing stars for days. Saying that the examination was thorough would have been the understatement of the century. They checked everything that I could have imagined they check and even more things that I had no idea could be checked. They logged everything about me that was recordable, including taking ample DNA samples.

"Now I only have a few more questions and we can wrap things up. Tell me, Mr. Walker, how far can you trace your family lineage back?" He looked intently through his large, bifocal lens at me. Why was it that everyone was so pushy about where people came from around here? Its like it was all they cared about.

"Um. Well…my grandpa and grandma were accountants born and raised in Ba Sing Se. And so is my mom, just like them. But we moved here when she received a job in the Secretariat."

"These grandparents, maternal, are they?"

"Yeah."

"And your father's parents? What did they do and where are they from?"

"Well, I don't know. My dad never talked about his parents or where they were from. He's dead now. He met my mom when he moved to Ba Sing Se."

"Curious… And he, too, was an accountant?"

"No. He was an Archaeologist. He was dig old stuff up and…"

"Yes, yes. I am aware of what archaeology is."

"And, how did your father die? Are there any rare, unusual illnesses that run in your family? Maybe IHB or something similar…?"

"Um.. IHB?"

"Yes. Intensive Heart Burn. It has been one of the leading causes of death in the UNF for a few decades now. Fire Nationers seem prone to the illness. It causes the heart to practically work itself into, well, something similar to combustion. The heart seems to run just a little warmer and faster than normal. So much until it simply bursts…"

"Oh…well, no. My dad died from falling off a cliff in the Southern Mountains of Ba Sing Se. Besides, we aren't from the United Nations of Fire."

"Really? Are you sure? From a medical standpoint, you do have genetic markers that suggest a northern lineage. Hm. Curious."

**EXAMINATION ROOM #4 Corintin Helms**

"Please, Mr. Helms… Stop squirming!"

"Noo! Noooo! Please, don't probe me!"

"Mr. Helms, I am not going to probe you! This is just a thermometer!"

"…Oh… Okay. Ahhhh"

"Um… No. Mr. Helms, not that kind of thermometer."

… "NOOOOO!"

**EXAMINATION ROOM #1 Amiamara Mizen**

"And how far back can you trace your…"

"My family can trace its lineage back to even before the Romance Era to Shujo Mizen, head advisor to Fire Lord Maizuko. Our lineage is well-known and public record, Doctor. You have but to search any of the official Secretariat catacombs to find it. My family has been a staple noble family of the current and past forms of the United Nations…"

"Uh, of course, Miss Mizen."

"And a few final questions… Are their any outstanding or uncommon illnesses that run in your…"

"No." She cut him off again. "We have always had PERFECT health. Is that all, Doctor."

"Uh, uhm, yes, yes that just about wraps it up. Thank…" She stood up and exited the examination room.

**EXAMINATION ROOM #4 Corintin Helms**

"Please, Mr. Helms, quit that whimpering and try your best to focus on the questions at hand, thank you."

Corintin sat in the corner of the room, moaning and rocking slowly in the fetal position.

"Now, tell me again your family's lineage…this time without the sobbing."

"Well…m-m-my mother and f-f-father are f-f-from the Southern Ocean T-t-tribes, Yue and Fiji."

"Um…my gramgram died of liver cirrhosis…"

The man sighed… "Thank you, Mr. Helms. That'll be all."

**Phase II: THE MENTAL EVALUATION**

**EXAMINATION ROOM #1**

"Can you please tell me what you see when you look at this?"

"An upside down, inverted kanji of the symbol for UNF…" The psychiatrist looked somehow shocked. It was exactly what the ink blog was created from but he'd never expected anyone to actually discern the actual image.

"Um…maybe we should try something different."

**EXAMINATION ROOM # 4**

"How was your relationship with your gramgram"?

"Please, don't make me think about it…"

"What do you mean? Is it hard for you to think about your experiences with your gram gram?"

"She would…she would… fart all the time! And when she'd get drunk….she used to make me watch soap operas with her! The horror! The Horrorrr!

**EXAMINATION ROOM # 6 Osian Walker**

"Now… Close your eyes for me. Listen only to the sound of my voice. With every syllable you hear, its making you sleepier and sleepier. You eyelids seem to weigh pounds and you can't imagine not taking this opportunity to take a nap. The sound of my voice is getting softer, and softer. The room is disappearing, the weight falling away. When I count to three you will enter into a deep trance, wholly removed from this place, this moment. Nothing will be tangible but my voice.

1 ….. 2 ….. 3….. Sleep.

I opened my eyes and the world was gone. But it was still there. It was as if the world had darkened and shaded itself into a calmer, sullen place. I sat up and scanned the room. The psychiatrist was gone and I was alone. The room had expanded and changed somehow, although I couldn't quite describe how. I stood up and I suddenly felt lighter, less tied to the Earth. I felt as if I could rise with the breeze, like suddenly, it wasn't gravity that held him to the world anymore… what was though?

"Hello. Where did everyone go? And who turned out the lights?"

I looked around, unsure of what to do now. I looked down at myself, at the skin on my arms and was suddenly aware of their luminescence. I wasn't glowing, exactly. But it was like the blood under my skin had been replaced with something brighter, something bluer and it just barely shown through the outer layers of my flesh. And it wasn't just me. Everything seemed to be bad of this brighter, more florescent material.

Then I heard a thump behind the door.

"Is there anybody there?" I ran to the door and tried to turn the handle but something was wrong. I lifted my hand to see that the metal knob was now rusted and falling apart. I suddenly noticed that the door was barely standing, internally corrupted and diseased. I quickly spun around to see that the entire room was now decrepit and dead. The wallpaper had pealed and faded into rotted paper, the floorboards were rotted and holed and structurally unsound.

"W-w-what has happened? Why is everything like this?"

I was getting scared. It was like I went to sleep and awoke in some dead zone. Whatever was happening, I realized it was the hypnosis or trance thingy that the doctor was putting me under. I had to wake up from this dream before it turned into a nightmare. And then there was another thump. I started panicking. What was it and where was it coming from? And then there was another sound. I placed my hands over my eyes as if I was a child, trying to make a bad monster in my closet go away.

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up…. Wake up!"

**_"STAYYYYYYYYYY!"_**

I suddenly jumped up and everything was back to normal. I was back in the room I had been in, with the normal wallpaper and normal floorboards. The psychiatrist sat across from me, startled by my sudden movement. I was just standing there, not glowing or anything. And what was that sound, that voice... Something spoke to him.

"Mr. Walker... are you… alright?" I didn't know what to say, but I know I didn't want to tell him what just happened. He leaned up and squinted his eyes as if trying to notice something that he hadn't noticed before. Only he didn't know what that thing was.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. I'm good. I just got nervous." I tried to laugh it off so he wouldn't become suspicious.

"Right… very well. Either way, please have your seat so we can resume.

I didn't want to do. I didn't want to risk going back to that place. Apparently, I'd gone and he hadn't even realized. I was about to say something about it when his little timer went off on the coffee table across from us.

"Oh, well. That's all the time. You may rejoin the rest of the students, Mr. Walker."

I exited the room and reentered the main gymnasium to find Corey already released, standing among the rest of the students. As I walked closer, I noticed he was kinda slumped over, his head hanging.

"Corey…dude, you…alright?"

He didn't respond but I could see he was kind of whispering something below his breath, seemingly to himself.

"Please…please….please, don't. Please, don't…"

"Dude…" I rested my hand on his shoulder and he jumped up suddenly. "PLEASE DON'T PROBE ME!"

Half the students turned to look at us as I lowed my own head a bit, royally embarrassed.

"Oh…Sai. It's just you. So how'd it go? You perfect or what?"

"I don't know. I guess we'll all see after the third phase."

After a few minutes the microphone clicked on and the woman from early walked back on to the stage.

"Attention, students! The preliminary tests have concluded. All but the following students may

leave the gymnasium and resume your class schedules:

Yin Cho, Amiamara Mizen, Corintin Helms, Kairi Mazumira and Osian Walker. Everyone else you have failed. Please return to your normal class schedule."

Everything imaginable began to run through my head. What was going to happen? How is it that we passed and they didn't? What about me would cause me to pass tests like that? I could barely answer any of the questions, let alone give the right answers.

When I regained visual on what was going on around me. I turned to look to my side for some odd reason and there I saw her, staring him directly in my eyes. The look on her face was stern and unyielding. It was like she was asking herself the very same questions about me rather than asking them of herself. She knew why she was there, but why was I?

Corintin looked just as shocked about the results as I was…and maybe a little more scared about them as well.

"Sai… I've got a bad feeling about this."

The last bit of students finally made their way out of the gym, the sound of the double doors slamming shut giving the fact away.

"Students. Prepare yourselves... This is the part of the test that will truly weed out those of you who should not be here. Get ready for the physical aptitude test… Get ready for Agni Kai!"

So... Comment and let me know how you're liking it so far. My chapters are kind of big, sorry.


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